This quarter of the year absolutely flew by... I promoted Ernest Youngman from our developmental territory, and he has looked an impressive young talent... Speaking of which, in March Aldous Blackfriar and Mutant arrived on the main roster too... Both freaks have been working together to get over in a packed midcard, but the weird team have been gaining momentum of late due to Blackfriar's impressive in-ring performances, and promos... Mutant is more of a 'bodyguard' at this stage... I also signed Samoan beast Akima Brave in February... He's a very experienced, consistent hand, and a good influence backstage... Perfect for my mid card...

In terms of big stories in this quarter, the biggest has to be the return of Mighty Cavanagh ... He made an instant impact upon his return in February at Clash Classic, costing his former partner Tim Westybrook his Television Title... In a brilliant match, James Hernandez won BACK his Title from Westybrook... Mighty Cavanagh certainly helped, but this was a 'coming of age' match for Hernandez... Back in the match that he lost the Title to Westybrook, he was brutally beaten up, and barely got in any offence at all against big Westybrook... But on this night, even without Cavanagh, Hernandez looked like he could have beaten Westybrook in the return match!!

Speaking of Title changes, Trent Shaffer's impressive run as NOTBPW Canadian Champion came to an end at Clash Classic... His reign was widely regarded as a 'transitional' one, in order to get the Title on to someone else... But he held the Gold for four months!! Jack DeColt is the Champion now... Trent has fallen down the card, and gotten himself into an unlikely feud with Gargantuan ...

[Trent Shaffer lost his Canadian Title to Jack DeColt after an excellent run as Champion...]

At the Ed Henson Memorial Tag Team Cup, World's Most Wanted (Thrill Seeker and Jacob Jett) won the Tournament, defeating their rivals: Cameron Vessey and Christian Price in the Finals... WMW then went on to defeat Vessey and Price to become Tag Team Champions again...

In an interesting twist, Julian Watson turned on his partner in The Aces: Jared Johnson ... Watson aligned himself with John Maverick ... The team now known as 'The Mavericks' put a beating on Jared, and bullied the youngster... Until he found some help from his mentor: Johnny Bloodstone ...

NOTBPW have made a HUGE signing for April... He's a bigger name than James 'Mainstream' Hernandez ... He's a bigger name than 'RDJ' Ricky Dale Johnson ... and he's coming to NOTBPW to potentially become their biggest star ever... With 10 years experience, at the age of just 30 years old, this man has his whole career ahead of him... But I'm not going to tell you who it is yet...

Gotta say I'm sad to see you heading away from the NOTBPW spirit towards a sports entertainment style.

I can understand that. I considered not telling anyone, but for me it just made sense. I plan on running this diary/save for longer than I ever have before. The top NOTBPW style wrestlers are all over 40 (McFly, Duane Stone, The CanAm Blondes, Westybrook). The next generation are all Sports Ent. style stars really, including Jack and Ricky DeColt, Steve who can do both, Gargantuan, even Shooter Sean and Trent Shaffer can do sports ent. They're all more like 30-33. I see Edd Stone as the ultimate villain too.

I won't go away from long matches though. All of my guys have got to be able to wrestle (except Garg). It's just our ratings were struggling badly. Plus, their blurb reads like this:

"North Of The Border Pro Wrestling is the Stone family's company and has been the biggest promotion in Canada since the late 1980s. Their success has been down to a simple combination; great workers being given time to have great matches. They are beloved in Canada but often derided by US fans for being 'soulless'.

NOTBPW's founder Dan Stone retired in 2011, handing over the reins of power to Jeremy Stone, with his daughter Victoria Stone continuing as head booker, a role she has excelled in. With the promotion in good hands, NOTBPW's future continues to look bright."

We want to grow into the US market, and make it a 'Big Four'. We certainly don't want to be soulless. Since making the change to Sports Ent, our ratings have improved, and we've grown to National again. We've even gone up to the Number 7 promotion in the World, and we keep beating SWF in the National Battles.

Now the final line stuck with me somewhat. "With the promotion in good hands, NOTBPW's future continues to look bright." I'd actually disagree with this. The only future stars on the roster were Sonny Wildside, Cameron Vessey, Jacob Jett and Shooter Sean Deeley in my opinion. Hope that all justifies my stance. I would welcome more feedback about this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakerNGN74

Love the dynasty so far The Lloyd. NOTBPW is my favorite promotion in the C-Verse and I can't wait to see what you do with them.

Great to have you back man. I know you don't touch my WWE diaries but I'm glad you're keeping an eye on this one. I love NOTBPW too. Huge Stone Family fan!!

Definitely working on reading this one, The Lloyd. What I've read so far looks excellent. Even if you are working for the soulless machine that is North of the Border. LOL. Glad to see RDJ in your company, though. He can definitely be a fun one with which to work.

Definitely working on reading this one, The Lloyd. What I've read so far looks excellent. Even if you are working for the soulless machine that is North of the Border. LOL. Glad to see RDJ in your company, though. He can definitely be a fun one with which to work.

Stop 'deriding' us US(PW) fan!! Completely agree about RDJ. I have him on the announce desk at the moment, but his on camera skills are excellent, particularly microphone work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CobheadJake

Awesome stuff, I love NOTBPW and have recently started a new save with them myself so I am interested to see where this goes!

Any chance you can post the changes you made to make them more sports entertainment-y? I'd like try and use NOTBPW with a different product.

Looking forward to seeing this get going.

Yes of course. So to begin with, I simply added more non-wrestling segments. If I remember rightly, I adjusted it to 80% matches for both TV and events. This is now 70% in full Sports Ent. mode. I also reduced the intensity and danger of the matches, and changed some of the product appeal stuff. Nowadays, I've just selected a pre-set product that fits my roster better: Sports Entertainment. My ratings have improved so much, and I'm growing fast.

[Side note: King Bison continues to work on my roster, and he's making me more and more worker pics. In this overview, there is a LOT of his work However, when I wrote the first few shows out, I didn't have them all in place. This is particularly obvious at the Super Slam pay-per-view which is my next event... More on that shortly...]

Thoughts: I like my Franchise Players, even though it's very DeColt heavy... It's nice to see Gargantuan on that list. He's undefeated since I signed him, so has been slowly rising towards the top of the card. His feud with Trent Shaffer is his first taste of a Main Event level storyline... It'll be interesting to see how long his matches can go before Stamina is an issue, and how he carries a show... Sonny Wildside and James Hernandez on the Show Stoppers list is a welcome surprise. Their rise towards the top has also been slow, with the former still very much a lower mid carder. He held my developmental World Championship twice before I promoted him. He's just developed a new catchphrase, so that's always nice. I'm not surprised by the Time Decline guys to be honest. They're all above 40 years old, but I won't be getting rid of them any time soon. That said, if an offer comes in from another company, I won't stop them leaving if I can't compete financially. I am working to a budget after all.

Just wanted to drop in and say how much I've enjoyed reading this. I love how you've made it a more sports entertainment company. I love NOTBPW and reading your stuff has made me want to get back into the game and start a new save. I always ruin saves I have by signing every big prospect and I get to the point where I overpush everyone instead of just taking time and letting them move along slowly. Great job and I can't wait to read more

Just wanted to drop in and say how much I've enjoyed reading this. I love how you've made it a more sports entertainment company. I love NOTBPW and reading your stuff has made me want to get back into the game and start a new save. I always ruin saves I have by signing every big prospect and I get to the point where I overpush everyone instead of just taking time and letting them move along slowly. Great job and I can't wait to read more

I have to say, this is a lovely comment. I appreciate it Yeah I do that too. A new rule I've made myself for every new game I start now, is to make ONE signing per month! Just one! I can sign ten, as long as I put nine in developmental. Or, instead of a signing, I can promote one from developmental. I felt this made it harder to over-bloat the roster. I'm forever firing or releasing talents when they've over stayed their usefulness.

I occasionally have a 'tidy up' (normally after Wrestlemania in a WWE save,) where I'll get rid of some guys and girls to make room for the next twelve months!!

Anyway, thanks again... Now it's time for the first set of Quick Picks...